Widogastswebofwords

Trigger warnings: abuse, murder, manipulation and gaslightingBorn Bren Aldric Ermendrud and raised in Blumenthal– a small village in the Dwendalian Empire. He and two others were headhunted at the age of 15 by a powerful wizard for their magical aptitude. They were given scholarships to an advanced program in the esteemed Soltryce Academy. There they excelled in magic, were promised great power and rewarded for their skill, but it came at a cost. They were groomed to join the Volstruckers (or Scourgers) and carry out secret police work for the Empire under the purview of their mentor Trent Ikithon. Trent subscribed to the pedagogical theory that breaking a student was the best way to teach them. To bring them up to be what he wanted them to be. And what they were to be were perfect tools under his discretion. They were experimented upon, the powerful and unstable substance known as Residuum was embedded into their skin to heighten their abilities. They were also subject to strict punishment– it wasn’t unlikely that some of their classmates died before their training was complete. During this time Astrid, Bren, and Eadwulf grew extremely close and formed romantic bonds through their shared trauma.Their most extreme test of loyalty came when they were 17 . their minds were modified with false memories planted by their teacher, designed to make them believe their parents were traitors to the empire. There was only one thing to be done with traitors. The three were sent to eliminate them, with Astrid going first, Eadwulf second, and Bren last. Bren set his house ablaze with his parents inside, but when they began to scream all of the certainty, all of the conviction, melted away. He broke. He tried to get in and save them, but Astrid and Eadwulf held him back. After he burnt his friends, Trent knocked him unconscious and cast a spell on him that addled Bren’s mind and made him incapable of speech.He spent 11 years trapped in a sanitorium until someone he doesn’t much remember removed his madness and false memories. After that he managed to escape the sanitorium and assumed the name Caleb Widogast. His old name was no longer his own, he didn’t feel he deserved to carry his family's name.After escaping the santorium, Caleb purposefully let his hygiene fail in order to hide– to the point where he oft refuses to wash above the neck. Few are willing to make eye contact with beggars, if they even notice them at all. He used this to his advantage, becoming a wandering vagrant and trying to stay unseen.

Caleb was born as Bren Eldric Ermendrud to parents Una and Leofric Ermendrud in Blumenthal village in the Anderfels. The village was poor, her people living on the brink, and to hear some tell it the birth of three children gifted with magic in the same year sounded the death knell for them. For others, their talents were gifts from the Maker to ease their hardships. Leofric and Una were among the latter, but they knew that their neighbors would send for the templars soon enough. They decided to pre-empt them. They discussed with the other two families and decided to stress their children’s prowess with magic in the hopes of catching the attention of the more prestigious Circles– in the hopes of giving their children a better life.The day the Templars came for him would be the last time Bren saw his parents' faces.First Enchanter Trent Ikithon heard of the upstarts discovered by templars high in the Anderfels, and took leave to investigate. There he found that the three possessed immense potential, and he used his influence to take them under his wing back in Orlais. That was how it came to be that Astrid Becke, Bren Ermendrud, and Eadwulf Grieve, went to the illustrious Orlesian Empire.Unbeknownst to the ecstatic Ermendrud family, Ikithon’s power stretched far beyond that of the Circle he called home. Secret dealings with Empress Celene emboldened the wisened enchanter. In return for keeping her informed, for neutralizing threats to her empire before they arose, he was given free reign to do what he pleased in the Circle. Few questions asked, and fewer answered. With his freedom, he hand selected talented mages from across Thedas and molded them into a spy network under him. In hushed whispers, these dangerous people were sometimes called Scourgers or Volstruckers, but officially they were– well, officially they didn’t exist at all.Ikithon specialized in breaking these apprentices and remaking them in whatever shape pleased him. Under his tutelage, Bren, Astrid, and Eadwulf grew in power and skill at an unprecedented rate. Bren in particular was considered his star pupil, though the other two weren’t far behind him. They were taught not only magic, but more mundane practices that would serve them later like herbalism and swordsmanship. All of that paled in comparison to the lyrium experimentation in which Ikithon engaged. It started with new ways to ingest lyrium aside from potions. He experimented on the crystals themselves, and how they interacted with the human body. Then, in his research, he’d heard tales from Tevinter about the art of tattooing lyrium into the skin. The major breakthrough came when he discovered red lyrium on the black market. More powerful than blue lyrium, though with deleterious side effects. Effects that he hoped to curb with time.He began to experiment with the stuff, attempting to utilize it on his students by inserting the crystalline form into their arms for short bursts, trying to control the deadly effects in the aftermath of the explosively powerful magic they could wield with its help.Through all the trauma of the experimentation, the rigorous study, and the more rigorous punishments they faced, the three students grew closer and eventually began a romantic relationship.Their final test, at age 17, before graduating from Ikithon’s tutelage and into his service, was an act of loyalty. Loyalty to the Empire, loyalty to the Maker, and loyalty to Ikithon. Between the red lyrium and the blood magic (though Caleb is unaware of the latter) it was easy for him to implant false memories of their parent’s treachery into their minds. And so they were tasked with destroying them. The rules were to use non-magical means and to escape without being caught. Bren was the last to go, setting a firebomb at the doorstep of his childhood home. Only, when it went off and his parents began to scream, something inside of him broke. He tried to get back to them, to stop the fire and pull them out, but Astrid and Wulf held him back at Trent’s orders. In his panic, he burned them both. Trent Ikithon put him to sleep and dragged him back to the Circle.For his failure, Bren was made tranquil.He remembers very little from this time, and feels that his thoughts were too muddled and foggy to be of much use. He spent 11 years in that state.It wasn’t until a Chantry sister who just so happened to visit that day touched his shoulder that his mind was returned to him. Without his– or Trent’s– knowledge, she carried with her a spirit of compassion that heard his suffering. From his point of view, it was a miracle. A miracle that came with a heavy burden.With his mind returned to him, Bren assumed the name Caleb Widogast and fled the Circle (it wasn’t so difficult when he pretended to be tranquil and sent on a mission– after all, why would one of them lie?) with an amulet stolen from Trent Ikithon’s quarters that prevented magical means of spying on him.From then on he’s been a vagabond, wandering Thedas in the search of knowledge that would allow him to bend reality to his will. His motivations are held close to the chest, but he intends to turn back time and save his parents from their untimely demise.Hearing of the events in Redcliffe, he was intrigued by the apparent manipulation of order of events, or perhaps time itself. With that news, he traveled to Skyhold and pledged his service to the Inquisition to study arcane secrets.

WIP